The typical trial-and-error approach to diagnosing and solving performance problems breaks down when the problems are difficult. As the complexity of the problem increases, so does the need for a methodical approach and powerful tools. This tutorial will teach you how to be systematic.

We’ll run through the process and then emphasize getting to know your toolkit, including iostat, vmstat & mk-query-digest. You will learn the approach Percona consultants have put to use across thousands of customer machines.

We’re going to try and teach you to be as practical as possible, with only minimal emphasis on performance theory where it’s needed. The main focus will be on MySQL versions 5.0, 5.1 and XtraDB on Linux operating systems. Attendees are encouraged to bring laptops as there will be some interactive components.

Baron Schwartz

VividCortex

Baron Schwartz is founder and CEO of VividCortex, the best way to see what your production database servers are doing. He is the lead author of High Performance MySQL and a variety of open-source software.

Morgan Tocker

Percona, Inc.

Morgan is the Director of Training at Percona, Inc. His interests in MySQL include Performance Tuning, scalability and High Availability. He is a regular speaker on these topics in the United States and Canada.

Before joining Percona, Morgan worked as a Technical Instructor for MySQL (and then Sun Microsystems) in Canada where he taught courses on High Availability, Performance Tuning and Database Administration. He has also previously worked in the MySQL Support Team, and enjoyed a brief stint as a Rails developer for social finance website SmartHippo.com.